Artist: Oldfield, Mike
Label: Virgin Records
Release: 1983
Rating: 4.5/5
Mike Oldfield has enchanted us more times than I can count with his superb compositions, which have something for everyone. Personally, he’s always won me over with his emotional pieces like Ommadawn, Incantations, Celt and so on, where his outstanding playing technique takes a back seat to creating gorgeous atmospheres and melodies. These days Oldfield is probably still best known for Tubular Bells, but after that landmark debut he put out a whole heap of important records, and Crises is definitely one of them.
On this album, much like on some of his earlier releases, Oldfield pulls his typical move of putting one long piece and a few shorter, more commercial songs on the record, which guarantee him wider recognition and stronger backing from the label. On top of that, Crises features a whole crowd of big-name musicians who surely helped the record’s success even further.
The title track is classic Oldfield, with a wonderful bounty of melodies spanning all sorts of genres – symphonic rock, pop, straight-up rock, folk and plenty more. The structure of the composition becomes clear in the final moments, when the opening theme returns and the circle closes. That circular structure is typical of many of his longer works. It’s something that sets him apart from everyone else and makes him such a brilliant composer. Another trait of this exceptionally well-built piece, which never gets boring for even a second, is that in the first few minutes you can hear the Tubular Bells theme in the background, from his most famous work. Crises is a magical opening to the album and one of Oldfield’s best compositions, period.
Moonlight Shadow is a lovely little pop song with a more conventional structure (at least compared to Crises) and delicious vocals from Maggie Reilly. Her voice shines unbelievably here and the hair on my arms stands up every time I hear this performance, which isn’t all that surprising, since she’s my favorite singer.
In High Places is another simpler song, with Jon Anderson on vocals. Anderson is great again, as usual. The song didn’t convince me at first, but over time the slightly odd melody grew on me and now I find it downright endearing.
Foreign Affair is another moment where Maggie Reilly gets to shine, and she rescues the thing quite a bit. The song is a little too repetitive (even for pop) and even Maggie can barely lift it to a higher level.
Taurus 3 is a very good instrumental. It’s powerful and dynamic, and I’d dare say it’s the best thing on the album after Crises and Moonlight Shadow. What stands out most is Oldfield’s excellent work on acoustic guitar.
Shadow on the Wall was another big success for Oldfield, as it got played on every medium going, even many years after release. It’s more of a hard rock song, which isn’t the most usual thing for Oldfield, but it’s also one of the weakest things on the album, since I personally don’t hear any real quality hard rock in it, though it has to be admitted that Roger Chapman does a great job.
On this album the wonderful multi-instrumentalist is joined by a bunch of fantastic musicians, such as Jon Anderson (Yes), Anthony Glynne (ex Asia), Maggie Reilly, Pierre Moerlen (Gong), Roger Chapman (Family), Phil Spalding (GTR) and Simon Phillips (Toto, among others). That gave the album even more prestige, and Oldfield once again scored a big success, with the hits Moonlight Shadow and Shadow on the Wall especially to thank for it. With a lineup like that, the album is of course played brilliantly, and the production is phenomenal for its time. Oldfield once again pulled off that wonderful combination of one outstanding epic piece, the kind only he is capable of, and shorter songs. A blend of progressive rock and pop, then, and Oldfield was usually excellent at both.
At the end of the day, I have to say this is a wonderful progressive album from one of the best composers in rock music. There are lots of genres hiding in it, and that makes it sprawling and interesting. Practically all the short songs are great, and the long piece is one of his best. Maybe it’s even his last great album. I don’t know, maybe he’ll surprise us again down the road.
Lineup
Mike Oldfield – guitars, basses, drums, percussion, harp, bells, keyboards, mandolin, banjo, tambourine, vocals
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Jon Anderson – vocals (3)
Roger Chapman – vocals (6)
Rick Fenn – guitar (1)
Pierre Moerlen – vibraphone (3)
Anthony Phillips – guitar (1, 6)
Simon Phillips – drums, percussion
Maggie Reilly – vocals (2, 4)
Phil Spalding – bass guitar (1, 2)
Production
Mike Oldfield, Simon Phillips
Track list
1. Crises 20:37
2. Moonlight Shadow 3:37
3. In High Places 3:34
4. Foreign Affair 3:52
5. Taurus 3 2:25
6. Shadow on The Wall 3:10
